Huntsville gazette., 1887-06-25
STRANGE USES OF PAPER.
81 So s& ---- - -------- -,
Z HoW the Racing Shells OF Leading
"A Rowing cubs Are Made.
Interesting Description of the Methods
Employed in the Manufacture of Ps3Ax
Car-wheels, Building Paper ana
Arff clo
One of the most remarkable uses
Other Articles
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One of the most reBnarkable uses of
q paper is the bhilding of paper boats,
under the sllatents recently expired, of
J ID Waters These boats are made of
an ordinary Manila paper of good
quality, usually in five thicknesses,ein
al only one-sixteenth of an inch thick,
except in parts where there is a rein
enforcement of one or two extra strips.
The process of making them is simple.
A model of soft pine is made the full
size of the boat, the, bow end being
Of two pieces which can be detached.
The paper is delivered in long rolls;
the model is turned upside down on a
81. long frame; one narrow strip Of paper
~ and then a second. are first laid on
where the keel would be, and then one,
two, three, four, five sheets are success
a. siyely laid along and molded close to
1.-THE model, each as it is put on being
y coated with shellac and with glue to at
tach the next sheet closely to it. Thus
-,done up in paper the models are taken
. to -the drying-room, where a heat of
about $50 degrees F., continued for
five days, consolidates the glued paper
into a solid mass. The movable pieces
of wood at the bow are unscrewed and
taken out, and with this place for
esstart, it is easy to peel the boat off the
model, as a peach-skin comes off fresh
peach. A keel is. now, fastened inside
the boat, several extra layers of shellac
s-are put on outside and inside, strip
s.-of wood is fastened in for a gunwale,
: and the shell. is presently ready for it's
fittings, seats and outriggers. They
are mostly racing shells, from single
s,scull up to. eight-oar, but one boat has
been built as large as AZ feet long by
4 feet inches beam, to hold
forty-two persons, this, of course, be-
ing stayed by wooden ribs;- and a
stearn-launch 10 feet long, worked by
e-horse-powcr oil engine, boat and
engine together weighing but 49o
pounds, was last fall successfully run
at speed of about ten miles per hour
on the upper Hudson. The cost is some-
thing above that of wood. The single
scull, 213 feet long by 104 inches beam,
costs from $65 to 500; the eight-oared
shell, about 60 feet long by "a inches
wide, costs $400. 1t is an interesting
fact that the racing shells of Harvard,
Yale and Columbia in 1886 were all
= from the same model from this shop, 30
the contest was entirely one of skill on
! even terms. -
Not only is travelling by water in
G.idebted to paper, but travelling by land.
A paper car wheel seems even more a
contradiction of terms than a paper
boat, yet it is now generally acknowl-
edged to be better, safer and longer
lived than one altogether of metal. 1t
was the invention of Richard N. Allen.
locomotive engineer, afterward mas
ter mechanic of the Cleveland & Toledo
railroad, who took for his aim in life
the production OF a better car wheel
than those in use. His first set of pa
per wheels was made at Brandon, VT,
in 1869, and after much scoffing he was
graciously permitted the use of wood
car on the Central Vermont road, un-
der which they were tested for six
months. The Pullman Palace Car Com
pduy III 1CI1 gave tIC u1oo OAuCA AOA
hundred wheels; ten years after the
sAllen Paper Car-wheel Company, with
great shops at Hudson, N. Y, and Pull
man, H., produced and sold thirteen
thousand in single year. One of the
set first experimental with under
& ''sleeper" is shown, at Hudson, with a
record Of 100000 miles travel.
1t is the body of the wheel only which
is of paper. The material is 8 calen-
dered rye-straw "board'' or thick paper
made at the Allen Company's mills at
Morris, III. This is sent to the works
in circular sheets of twenty-five to
forty inches in diameter Two men,
standing by pile of these, rapidly
brush over each sheet an even coating
Of -four paste until 1do0en are pasted
into q layer. A third man transfers
these layers to shydraulic press, where
a pressure of five hundred tons or
more is applied to a pile Of them, the